Colorado Native Plant Society, Northern Chapter

The Northern Chapter meetings are the first Wednesday of the month, October-April,
at 7:00 pm at
The Gardens on Spring Creek
2145 Centre Ave., Fort Collins

Meetings and field trips are free and open to everyone. Please join us.

Prior to meetings we meet for dinner with the speaker at Café Vino, 1200 S College Avenue, Fort Collins at 5:30 p.m. Please join us. Let us know you are coming by emailing Pam Smith or by calling her: 970-223-3453.

We formerly called ourselves the Fort Collins Chapter, but our membership is from Fort Morgan, Greeley, Fort Collins, Longmont, Laramie, Estes Park, etc. so we have changed our name to the Northern Chapter of the Colorado Native Plant Society to reflect our diversity. We hope that wherever you are in north-central and north-eastern Colorado, you will join us for our free programs and field trips.

Northern Chapter Programs
2009

January: No program is scheduled for this month.

February 4, 7 p.m.

“Fire history of Larimer County foothills below 7,000 feet”. Presented by Laurie Huckaby, Ecologist, US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.

Location: The Gardens on Spring Creek, Fort Collins

Laurie has been working on the fire history of the foothills in Larimer County below 7,000 feet. She is going to present 1,000 years worth of chronology that she has been able to put together. She has observed some fascinating Native American connections to shifts she has observed in the fire history chronology. She will also discuss some very old trees and even older wood samples that were part of her study.

Thursday, March 12, 2009 7 p.m.

"Prairie Thunder: The Nature of Colorado’s Great Plains”

Presented by Dave Showalter, Colorado author and photographer

Location: Lincoln Center, Fort Collins

Dave Showalter will present his spectacular photographs and will tell us about his experiences in documenting years of nature and wildlife observations at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal. His book, Prairie Thunder, will be available for purchase.

This is a joint meeting with Fort Collins Audubon Society.

PLEASE NOTE: Dave Showalter's presentation will be on Thursday evening instead of on our regular Wednesday evening.

April 1, 2009, 7 p.m.

“Suburbitat”

Presented by Jim Tolstrup, Executive Director of the High Plains Environmental Center

Location: The Gardens on Spring Creek, Fort Collins

Jim will give a presentation on plans for stewardship of the Center’s 275 acre natural area at Centerra in Loveland. Plans include native plant and habitat restoration (which is already well underway), as well as public education on sustainable horticulture, preservation of native biodiversity, and sustainability.

Last Year's

Northern Chapter Programs
2008

October 1: "Utilizing & Growing Native Plants in Urban Landscapes". Presented by Phil Phelan, Bath Garden Center & Nursery.

Growing natives in traditional landscape conditions can prove challenging. Understanding landscape dynamics can help native plants survive and thrive in our urban gardens.

November 5: "Ashes to Asters: Understory Plants are Alive and
Well After the 2002 Hayman Fire". Presented by Paula Fornwalt, Ecologist, United States Forest Service, rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins.

The 2002 Hayman Fire burned with mixed severity across 55,800 hectares of montane Colorado forest, including pre-existing understory plots originally measured in 1997. We re-measured understory plant composition and cover in these plots annually from 2003 to 2007 to examine the influence of wildfire severity, time since fire, and pre-fire community composition on post-fire plant response. We found that the Hayman Fire has had little impact on native understory plant communities. However, the fire did encourage the establishment of exotic species, especially in the most severely burned areas.

December 3: "Natives In The Gardens". Presented by Michelle Provaznik, Horticulture Facilities and Services Administrator, City of Fort Collins, The Gardens at Spring Creek.

Michelle will highlight the use of native plant materials and talk about ways we are currently educating the public about native plants and what we hope to do in the future to increase education opportunities.

If you have ideas for programs or field trips,
email Pam Smith.